


And This is Guiding You Home

by JackEPeace



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/F, Maveth AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-29 15:22:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16746526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JackEPeace/pseuds/JackEPeace
Summary: “I think this is Tatooine,” Daisy remarks, seeming unbothered by the incredulous look that Jemma gives her in response.“This is not Star Wars,” Jemma mutters. “This is real. Though I don’t think we’re in our same galaxy. I think…”“We’re in a galaxy far, far away?” Daisy is grinning. “Is that what you’re telling me?”-or-Jemma and Daisy on Maveth





	And This is Guiding You Home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [isloremipsumafterall](https://archiveofourown.org/users/isloremipsumafterall/gifts).



> Happy birthday, Beej! I'm sorry this is late! One day I'll get my life together. I really hope you enjoy this story! 
> 
> Thank you for giving me the chance to play around with Maveth once again and, I mean, we all know that what that whole story line needed was more Skimmons. And let's just pretend this all takes place after Daisy has already told everyone she wants to be called 'Daisy' and not 'Skye.' 
> 
> The title is from "Such Great Heights" by the Postal Service because I really wanted the title to be "You'll hear the shrillest highs and lowest lows with the windows down and this is guiding you home" but I managed to control myself.

It all happens so fast, quick enough that even after it’s done and there’s no going back, no changing what has happened, Jemma still has a difficult time making sense of it all.

By the time Jemma even realizes that the latch on the Monolith’s case isn’t completely closed, her feet are being swept out from under her and her desperate attempts to hold herself in place, to keep from being dragged backward, leave nothing more than feeble scratches in the floor.

She screams, she thinks.

Calls for help as the air rushes from her lungs.

And there are hands, desperate and grabbing, strong but not strong enough.

Daisy, trying to help her, to pull her free. Daisy, there.

In the end, it’s not enough to save them.

 

* * *

 

“Well…we can build a really, really big sandcastle.”

Jemma looks over at Daisy, screwing her face up into an expression of disbelief and vague disappointment. Daisy just smiles sheepishly, shrugging and gesturing to the landscape around them. “Just looking around…”

Which is honestly all there is to do right about now. So, Jemma looks. And looks. And looks. But everything looks the same. Sand and the hint of mountains in the distance, drawn in the background like an afterthought. Overhead, there’s nothing familiar, nothing that suggests that they’re close to home. Or even in the same galaxy as home.

“There’s no sun.” Daisy’s voice sounds far off, even though she’s standing only a few feet away, and this time Jemma doesn’t turn to acknowledge her.

She’s been thinking the exact same thing.

There’s no sun.

“Nothing lives here.” It seems like quite the statement to make but the words leave Jemma’s mouth anyway, a scientific hypothesis born from the fact that there’s no sun and nothing but sand.

She tries to tell herself that she’s making a scientific observation, not a prediction.

“We hope,” Daisy says and this time Jemma does look at her. “We _hope_ nothing lives here. I don’t know if I want to see the type of things that are hanging around.”

Jemma frowns, reaching up to try and tame her hair as it swirls, tangled and messy, buffeted by the wind. “You seem oddly calm.”

Daisy snorts and the sound is strangely reassuring, a vague memory of home. “I’m glad you think I’m calm right now.”

They’re still standing close to the spot where they burst free, thrown by the Monolith into this barren wasteland of an unfamiliar planet. But Jemma can’t tell just by looking at the ground that they came from the other side. The sand is smooth, not even a fissure to suggest that they’re standing on top of some kind of portal.

“It doesn’t seem to work both ways,” Jemma muses because it feels better than staring up at the sky and screaming into the void above. She digs the nose of her shoe into the hard-packed earth and has the feeling that even if she were to fall to her knees and start scooping up palmfuls of dirt that she would never find anything there. “I don’t know how to get it to open.”

 “Maybe they can open it from the other side,” Daisy says. “Coulson or…someone. They can open it so we can come back through.”

“Yes.” Jemma swallows around the crack that she can hear in her voice, the panic starting to rise. “Let’s hope.”

Daisy looks at her and when their eyes meet, she offers a smile that doesn’t quite look sincere. “The team is going to figure this out.”

Jemma nods. What she means to say is _I’m sure they will_ or _we’ll be home before you know it_.  But what actually comes out of her mouth is, “This is all my fault.”

“Yeah, I definitely don’t follow you there.”

“You came to help me,” Jemma says, hoping the wind snatches her words away like that might somehow make all of this less true. “That’s why you’re here too.”

 The look on Daisy’s face is pure disappointment but she doesn’t seem all that surprised. She settles her hands on Jemma’s shoulders, and Jemma feels her body relax even if her mind is still running and running in a desperate attempt to avoid tripping over its own thoughts. “Why am I not surprised that you’re trying to figure out how to blame yourself for this.”

Jemma shakes her head, stepping away from Daisy. They’re both stuck here. Because of her. Because when she saw Daisy’s hand reaching out for her, she took it. “That thing-”

“That _thing_ brought us here,” Daisy says. “Not _you_. I’m not about to feel guilty for trying to stop you from getting eaten by a giant rock.”

Jemma sighs, the tightness in her chest stuck tightly in place, frozen there despite Daisy’s words of reassurance. “We’ll figure out a way to get home.”

This time when Daisy reaches for her, Jemma doesn’t step away. She just lets herself focus on the warmth of Daisy’s touch, the weight, the proof that she isn’t here alone.

Clearly she’s too selfish to _truly_ feel guilty about that.

“We well,” Daisy tells her. “Of course we will. Together. We always do.”

Jemma lifts her eyebrows. “Why does it always seem like that?”

“Because it’s us against the world, of course.” Daisy’s smile falters somewhat. “Though…I don’t really know what world _this_ is…”

Jemma lets her eyes drift upward once more, trying to ignore the twinge that passes through her at the lack of sun. How long can they survive without the sun overhead? How can _anything_ survive without the sun?

Instead, she focuses on the stars. Thousands them, peppered overhead in unfamiliar patterns, proof that they’re not in Kansas anymore.

“I think this is Tatooine,” Daisy remarks, seeming unbothered by the incredulous look that Jemma gives her in response.

“This is not _Star Wars_ ,” Jemma mutters. “This is _real_. Though I don’t think we’re in our same galaxy. I think…”

“We’re in a galaxy far, far away?” Daisy is grinning. “Is that what you’re telling me?”

Jemma shakes her head. “Let me know when your ridiculous enthusiasm wears off and you’re ready to talk about how we’re going to survive this mess.”

“Oh, I am not enthusiastic,” Daisy assures her. “I’m really fighting the urge to curl up in a ball and start crying. I’m just trying to look on the bright side.”

Curling up in a ball and crying seems like a solid plan, though Jemma doesn’t admit that. She’s pretty sure neither of them need to fully give into the edge of panic threatening to overtake them. “Which is…?”

“You.”

Jemma has always been envious of Daisy’s ability to just say the words that are in her mind, to let them spring off the tip of her tongue without any sort of fear or careful deliberation. Her entire life, Jemma has been taught to be modest, proper, to err on the side of decorum. She wonders, if it hadn’t been for Daisy’s fearless single-minded focus if she would have ever been able to stop tripping over herself and admit her feelings. Jemma knows she never would have been able to be the one to kiss Daisy -Skye- after everything with Garrett had left them broken and uncertain.

Or if she would be able to see a bright side in their current situation.

“Ever the romantic,” Jemma mumbles but she’s certain that Daisy can see how she’s trying not to smile.

Daisy lifts her eyebrows. “On here or any other planet.” Her smile falters. “We are…on another planet.”

It’s not so much a question as it is a realization.

Jemma sighs, squinting against the wind as it picks up, scouring her cheeks and arms with sand. Sand…of which there is an endless supply. Already, Jemma feels like the sand is coating every inch of her body, even the parts left covered by what seems to be an incredibly inadequate blouse and pair of slacks. She can feel the sand settling into her pores, coating her skin, leaving her red and raw. “If I had known we’d be stuck on Tatooine, I would have dressed appropriately.”

Daisy doesn’t even acknowledge Jemma’s nod to pop culture, struggling instead to tame her hair and keep it from swirling in a tangled mass around her face. “This kinda sucks.”

“I suppose we should stay here for a while.” Jemma turns back to the place where they burst from the earth, wishing, once again, to see signs of the base they left behind. Proof that there’s still a way that they can get home.

More than anything, she wants to see the ground crack open. She wants to see Fitz or Coulson or May on the other side, ready to pull them back home, so that they can wash the sand away and laugh about Daisy’s stupid _Star Wars_ references. She wants to be able to climb into bed beside Daisy tonight and berate her for being so impulsive and ridiculous, throwing herself into danger to try and save her. But, right now, the danger is still present tense and there’s no sign that the portal is going to open again any time soon.

It’s not any more comfortable sitting on the ground than it is standing, buffeted by the sand and wind, and Jemma is doing her best to try and push the sand out of her mind, like ignoring the fact that it’s pressing into her thighs and clawing at her skin will somehow make it go away.

“We could play I, Spy,” Daisy says after the silence has settled between them, broken only by the howl of the wind as it moves across the dunes.

“Sure,” Jemma mumbles, glancing around them, “I spy something desolate.”

The corner of Daisy’s mouth turns up in a sad sort of smile. “Us.”

 

* * *

 

Jemma has no idea how she manages to fall asleep but she does, feeling groggy and disoriented when she opens her eyes to find her head pillowed in Daisy’s lap, the ghost of Daisy’s fingers in her hair. For a moment, she lets her eyes settle closed again, trying to push away everything but the sensation of Daisy’s hand in her hair and the warmth of Daisy’s body against her own. But her eyelids itch, her skin feeling stretched tight.

All of these things make it difficult for Jemma to chase after sleep, to ignore everything around her.

Instead, Jemma sits up and Daisy’s hand slides down to the small her back, resting there almost unconsciously. “I had a dream we were at the beach.”

Daisy scoffs, grabbing a fistful of sand and letting it sift through her fingers. “I wish.”

Jemma looks toward the ground, which is nothing but ever shifting sand. “No luck?” She knows the question is useless even as she asks it.

Daisy sighs and that’s answer enough.

“We shouldn’t stay here anymore,” Jemma says, feeling emboldened by the words and the plan as it starts to take root in her mind. “We need to find water and shelter. And food.”

Daisy looks at her dubiously. “I have a feeling that the Holiday Inn isn’t just over that sand dune.”

“Well of course not.” Jemma rolls her eyes. “But we have to find something…we can’t just…sit here.”

Slowly, Daisy untangles herself from Jemma and stands, reaching out to help Jemma to her feet as well. “I don’t think the portal is going to open up again.” She says this quietly, as though she can’t bear to hear the sound of defeat and resignation in her own voice.

Jemma keeps their hands tangled together. “Yet.”

It makes her feel better to be focused on something, to have a goal. To be moving. The sand shifts, unsteady and unstable beneath their feet as they walk, making for hard going. Jemma stumbles several times, nearly pulling Daisy down with her, but Daisy manages to keep them from falling, from losing their footing completely.

And so they walk.

Jemma soon stops thinking about finding shelter. She stops thinking about the gnawing pit that her stomach has turned into. Stops thinking about breakfast back at the base -whether it was this morning or days ago, she isn’t sure. She stops thinking about her dry lips, the tightness in her throat. Stops thinking about water and the sun and home.

Instead, Jemma just thinks about putting one foot in front of the other. She thinks about following Daisy. She thinks about how, if they only go a little further, a little longer, something will change, and they’ll see something new.

Something other than the sandy, unchanging landscape, bathed in bluish grey light.

“I feel like we’re going in circles,” Daisy says. “Everything is the same!” She kicks out at the sand.

Jemma wishes that she could argue. She wishes there was something to point to, something to prove that this is new, that they haven’t been there before. There’s nothing.

There’s not even the sun overhead to help them chart the passage of time.

Jemma tips her head backward, squinting up at the stars, like if she wishes hard enough the sun might appear. That they might go home.

“We can do this,” Jemma says softly. “Just a little further.”

Daisy looks at her. “A little further to what? More sand?”

“I don’t know Daisy.” Jemma can’t help the edge that slips into her voice, the irritation that isn’t because of Daisy but is directed at her anyway. “Do I look like I know what the bloody hell I’m doing!”

Daisy sighs, scrubbing a hand across her face. “Okay, okay, think. We got this.”

“Got what, Daisy? There’s nothing. Nothing.” Jemma shakes her head, sinking down to the ground once more. “Where’s the sun? Where are we?”

Daisy kneels down in front of her, pushing Jemma’s tangled hair away from her face. “What happened to us against the world?”

Jemma only shakes her head, embarrassed the way her eyes prick with tears. It feels like days that they’ve been here. It feels like hours. It feels like forever. It feels like nothing at all. “There’s nothing here, Daisy.”

“You’re here,” Daisy says. “And you’re the smartest person I know.”

Swallowing, Jemma takes a breath. She pushes away the tightness spreading through her chest and throat, ignores the part of her that wants to rage and scream until she’s empty. Instead, she focuses on Daisy. “And you. A real superhero.” She manages a smile, ignoring the way her lips crack at the gesture.

Daisy shakes her head, looking down at her hands. “I’m not sure I trust myself, yet.”

Jemma covers Daisy’s hands with her own, their palms pressing together. “I trust you, Daisy.”

“I like the way you say that,” Daisy says. “It makes me miss Skye less.”

Jemma kisses her softly, their lips rough and chapped. “Daisy,” she whispers, the word snatched away by the wind.

But she thinks that Daisy hears anyway. “We can do this.”

What, Jemma isn’t sure. But arguing isn’t going to make it easier. Isn’t going to make anything happen.

So Jemma stands up again and they keep walking.

 

* * *

 

“Are hallucinations a sign that death is approaching?”

“Yes, sometimes. They can also be a sign of dehydration and…wait, what?” Jemma blinks, lifting her head away from watching her trudging feet to study Daisy. “What are you talking about?”

Daisy is fixated on something ahead, something that starts coming into focus as Jemma squints. Her head has been foggy, thoughts unfocused, and she’s pretty sure the lack of water and unending torrent of wind and sand is to blame. But, the more Jemma looks, the more she can see what was captured Daisy’s attention. Out there, in the distance.

A city.

Or, what Jemma imagines was once a city.

There are no lights. No signs of habitation. Just the outlines of buildings against the bluish sky. Steady and unwavering. Unmoving.

“I think it’s real,” Jemma says softly.

“Really?” Daisy rubs at her eyes with the heel of her hand. “Maybe we’re both just going crazy.”

“There’s only one way to find out.”

Having a destination, something to walk toward, makes every step surprisingly easier. And the closer they get to the ruins, the more obvious it is that they’re aren’t seeing things. There’s a city there are after all, buildings and debris and rubble there among the endless wasteland of sand.

No one emerges to watch them approach. There’s no curious faces peering out of the glassless, open windows. No assault, no warnings not to come closer.

Nothing but the sound of the wind whistling through the eaves and edges of the stone structures.

“People used to live here?” Jemma marvels, pressing her hand to the cool stone around the entrance.

The door is leaning off its hinges, looking like it’s been in that exact position for decades. Centuries. Daisy steps gingerly around it. “Well, something used to live here.”

Their footsteps echo off the ceilings and the world sounds quieter now that the wind is banished to the outside. Everything seems still and peaceful, something Jemma never thought that she was going to feel again.

It’s dark inside the stone fortress and Jemma’s eyes start to adjust quickly after days? hours? years? without the sun and she runs her fingers carefully across the stone as she and Daisy walk down a hallway. The stones are cool, damp and mossy and when Jemma looks at her fingers, she can see they’re slick with water. She barely resists the urge to lick the little bit of liquid from the skin of her fingertips. “What is this place?”

“It looks like a castle. Doesn’t it?” Daisy glances around, her voice sounding unnaturally loud as it echoes around them. “Like we went back in time.”

The hallway opens up into a large room and it reminds Jemma exactly of the castles she’d visited as a little girl, like a king and his court are about to sit down to eat at the long table in the middle of the room. Maybe Daisy is onto something after-

Daisy stops suddenly and Jemma runs into her back. “Daisy, what-”

There’s a skeleton sitting at one of the chairs at the massive table, slumped forward, remarkably preserved all things considered. The clothing hanging from the bones is tattered and Jemma can see leathery strips of flesh still clinging to the greying bones in some places.

Unable to help herself, Jemma walks forward, approaching the skeleton like she expects it to suddenly spook and run off. Gingerly, she brushes her fingers against the patch on the shoulder of the threadbare jacket. “An astronaut,” she whispers, looking over her shoulder. “We aren’t the first people to show up here.”

Daisy crinkles her nose. “Sucks for them,” she mumbles. “I really hope we don’t end up like this guy.”

Jemma looks at the insignia on the coat -the decorative medals, the name _Brubaker_ stitched across the front, the American flag- and wonders how the unfortunate astronaut ended up here. And whether anyone back home is still missing them.

If there is anyone still trying to bring them home.

“Holy shit.” Daisy’s voice causes Jemma to spin around quickly. “Jem! Look at this!”

Daisy is holding up a backpack, one of three piled in the corner a few feet to the left of where the astronaut is sitting. “There’s food in here.”

Freeze-dried, military style rations. But still. Food.

They eat, completely unbothered by the skeleton resting a few feet away. The fog starts to clear from Jemma’s head, the dull ache receding just enough for her mind to begin whirling back to life. “We still need water,” Jemma says. “And we’ll need to find more food.” What they found in the packs of the astronauts won’t last long.

But still Jemma has to fight the urge to grab another packet and tear it open.

“Where are the other astronauts?” Daisy asks, dumping out the contents of a bag that has _Taylor_ penned in fading Sharpie across the flap. “Do you think they’re still alive?”

Most of the items in the bag seem to be useless. Solar powered objects that have no sunlight to make them function. A flashlight with long dead batteries. “I don’t think so,” Jemma muses, flipping open a pocket knife, studying the dulling blade. “Why would they have left their stuff behind? And he’s been dead quite a while.” She points the knife at the skeleton.

They condense everything useful in one of the bags and Daisy slips it over her shoulders. “We need a plan.” She glances around. “We need to explore the rest of this place.”

“There has to be a water source,” Jemma muses as they leave the large room and start down another hallway. “If a civilization was built here at one point, then there had to have been water.”

“Let’s just hope there still _is_.”

They comb through every inch of the ruins, peaking through rooms and moving from one building to the next. It’s nice, a welcome distraction from thinking about the portal and the team and whether they’ll ever be rescued and wondering what killed the astronauts and why they were here in the first place.

In one of the smaller buildings, they find tattered, fraying blankets and pieces of clothing hanging in what Jemma assumes is a closet. They find pottery and tools, decorative items and other relics. “People used to live here,” Jemma says unnecessarily as she wipes layers and layers of sand off a dish on a table.

“But what happened to them. What would make them just disappear and leave all their stuff?”

“That is the million-dollar question.”

Daisy grimaces, shaking her head. “This is really starting to freak me out,” she grumbles. “It’s like a ghost town. Where did they go? Did the same thing that killed the astronaut kill them too?”

Jemma doesn’t protest as Daisy heads for the door. “What makes you think the astronaut was killed?”

“Why else would you just sit down at a table and die?”

The wind blowing through the ruins doesn’t exactly help with the eerie, ethereal quality of the place. Jemma sticks close to Daisy, which Daisy doesn’t seem to mind in the slightest. “There are lots of civilizations throughout history who have just gone missing. Disappeared, completely, without explanation.”

“And I used to think stories like that were interesting.”

Jemma has to admit that ideas of missing civilizations and exploring unknown planets and galaxies were all a lot more interesting when they were happening in the abstract.

When they find a house with a working water pump, they decide to halt further exploration. Jemma watches, fascinated, as water spills from the mouth of the pump and into her cupped hands. “Ingenious, really. With a water source and a breathable atmosphere, this planet could be habitable for human beings.” She pauses, considering. “Though, the lack of sun might prove to be a problem.”

Daisy is grinning at her. “You had me worried there for a little while.”

Jemma lifts her eyebrows, feeling self-conscious. “What are you talking about?”   

Daisy shrugs. “I thought I was going to lose you. But now you’re talking about science and hypothesizing again and it’s like you’re back to normal.”

Jemma does feel more like herself, admittedly. There are still a handful of things she would definitely not say no to, like a shower and a down comforter, but she’s feeling slightly more optimistic about things now that her throat is cool and no longer dry.

“You won’t lose me,” Jemma assures Daisy, closing the distance between them and settling herself in Daisy’s lap. They’ve used some of the blankets taken from the other buildings to create a sort of pallet on the floor and though it’s no down comforter, it’s better than being outside in the midst of the raging wind. “Us against the world, remember?”

Daisy smiles and when they kiss, Jemma feels like she’s home.

Almost.

It’s a start.

 

* * *

 

Jemma wakes suddenly, trying to put her finger on what has woken her so abruptly from sleep. She reaches out a hand, finding the spot beside her empty and definitively Daisy-less. Daisy missing from bed back at the base wouldn’t be much cause for concern. Daisy missing from bed on a planet in the middle of some unknown galaxy with no sun is definitely enough to get Jemma’s heart hammering in her chest.

Quickly, Jemma sits up, turning to look around the small building they’ve been spending the past few…days? in. Daisy’s name dies on her lips when she sees Daisy standing near the window, one they’ve draped with a threadbare sheet in an attempt to keep out some of the sand. Her hands are half lifted, frozen by her hips, and Jemma wonders if her powers work here on this alien planet.

They haven’t had cause to wonder this, yet.

“Daisy?”

“There’s someone else here.”

The whispered words cause the hair to stand up on the back of Jemma’s neck and she slowly, quietly, slips out from beneath the blankets and moves to stand behind Daisy. “What is it?”

Daisy shakes her head. “I don’t know. I just heard footsteps and a shadow passed by.”

Jemma tries to ignore the shiver that spreads from the base of her spine and through her body. She thinks of the astronauts, the other missing citizens of this strange place they’ve found. Jemma reaches for the pocket knife that she’s been keeping in her waistband. It didn’t do much to help the astronaut, but she feels better holding it against her palm.

Nothing happens.

There are no more shadows. No more footsteps.

Slowly, Jemma lets herself relax. Slowly, Daisy lowers her hands, uncurling her fingers. Her posture loosens and Jemma exhales through her teeth. “Maybe I was just dreaming.” Though, Daisy’s tone doesn’t exactly sound convinced.

“We’ll be more careful.” Jemma puts a hand on Daisy’s shoulder and Daisy steps closer to her. “We’ll keep a better watch.”

Daisy nods, though she doesn’t seem entirely convinced that whatever is out there is gone.

And the thought that they aren’t entirely alone refuses to leave Jemma’s mind.

 

* * *

 

Now that some of their more pressing problems have been solved, Jemma can’t stop her mind from wandering back to the portal and back to the problem of getting them home. She feels a tug back in the direction they came, a whisper in the back of her mind that tells her that she and Daisy need to return back to where the portal opened. That they need to trust the team.

But it seems foolish to give up the shelter and relative safety they’ve found for something that might not even happen.

Not that Jemma doubts Fitz and the others.

But without anything more concrete, returning to the spot where the portal opened would mean sitting around the sand dunes indefinitely, hoping for something to happen.

Jemma runs these problems over in her mind as she walks through the winding spaces in between the buildings -streets, she imagines. There are many things that suggest that the people -or beings- that lived here all that time before were at least as advanced as the people on Earth. But there’s still no sign of what happened to them. No lingering hints of violence and no signs of an illness or natural disaster that would have made everyone flee.

Jemma pauses, the hair on the back of her neck standing at attention. There’s nothing aside from the ever-present sound of the wind. When she turns back, there’s nothing, no one, behind her. Just the buildings that she’s already left behind.

She’s starting to wish that she hadn’t insisted that she and Daisy split up to cover more ground so they could continue to explore the ruins.

Jemma shakes her head, quickening her pace as she starts forward again. Maybe that’s enough for the day. Maybe she’ll return to the place where she and Daisy have made something of a home and she’ll just spend the rest of her time focusing on what they should do about the portal and-

And there are footsteps behind her.

Jemma can hear them now.

She immediately whips around, hand instinctively going to the waistband of her pants. What she wouldn’t give for a Night-Night Gun right about now.

There’s no one behind her. Not even the hint that there once was someone behind her.

“Get it together, Jemma,” she mutters, shaking her head. “You’re imagining things.”

The footsteps return when Jemma continues on her way. Clearer, harder to ignore. She waits, walking ahead, just to be sure.

This time when Jemma whirls around, she connects with something heavy and solid behind her. Her scream bounces across the buildings around them, swallowed by the swirling wind.

Jemma shoves herself away from the figure, stumbling back. The figure doesn’t pursue her, doesn’t lunge or give chase.

It’s not a beast or alien lifeform.

It’s a man.

He puts up his hands and the smile on his face seems bizarrely out of place and garish in the bluish grey light. “Whoa. Sorry to scare you.”

Jemma tenses, ready to run, even as she lets her eyes travel across the man. His face is weary and weathered, his scruff patchy and poorly maintained. Her eyes linger on the American flag patch on the breast of his shabby jacket, sewn beside a patch boasting the picture of a spaceship.

Jemma’s eyes widen as her gaze returns to his face. “You’re one of the astronauts. Who…how…”

The man still smiles, shaking his head. “You’re real. You’re really…you’re really here?” He rubs the back of his neck. “I’m not imagining this?”

“Unfortunately not.”

The man’s smile only grows, stretching wide like he’s forgotten how to do it. “This is amazing.”

Jemma isn’t entirely sure she can agree with that sentiment.

 

* * *

 

His name is Will Daniels and he’s been on this strange, distant planet for nearly fourteen years.

These are some of the things that Jemma learns as she leads him back to the building she and Daisy have been calling home.

“Fourteen years,” Jemma whispers, closing her eyes against the very thought of it. She has no idea how long she and Daisy have been here, and it’s already been unbearably long. “I can’t even imagine.”

Will shakes his head. “It’s been…difficult.”

“To be here…all alone…I don’t know what I would do without Daisy.”

Will looks at her with a flash of renewed interest. “You’re lucky,” he tells her. “I’ve…I’ve definitely missed being around other people. That’s why I couldn’t believe that you were real. I thought I’d been…noticing someone else but…I thought it was just, you know, wishful thinking.”  

Jemma nods. “I’m sure. It’ll be better now…now that we’re all together. You can tell us what you know about this place and we can put our heads together, figuring out a way to get off this planet.”

Will smiles, a slow, uncertain sort of gesture. “Off this planet…back to Earth…I gave up thinking that was possible long ago.”

There’s that voice in the back of Jemma’s head, the nagging bit of doubt, that assures her that it’s _not_ possible, that she and Daisy will be here for fourteen years just like Will. That they’ll forget that there was ever another place where they lived.

Jemma pushes that voice aside. “We can think of something.”

She pushes open the door and Daisy is already back, attempting to shake the sand free from their pallet of blankets, even though it’s definitely fighting a losing better. Daisy looks up at her and smiles. “I was starting-”

Her expression changes completely when she sees Will, and Daisy drops the blankets, taking a step back and raising her hand. “Uh, Jemma-”

“It’s okay,” Jemma says quickly, holding up her own hands in an effort to assuage Daisy’s panic. “It’s okay. This is Will. He’s stuck here, just like we are.”

Daisy doesn’t make a move to relax her body or lower her hand. Her suspicious expression doesn’t change, her eyes narrowing in distrust. “You’ve been here…watching us.”

Will looks slightly embarrassed. “Yeah…I…I thought I might be imagining things.”

“He’s been here for fourteen years,” Jemma tells Daisy, stepping across the room. She curls her fingers gently around Daisy’s wrists, more to reassure than restrain her. “Fourteen years, Daisy.”

Jemma can feel Daisy relax beneath her but only enough that it feels like she’s humoring Jemma, not actually trusting Will and the fact that he might be harmless. Her eyes are still focused on Will, pinning him in place. “That sucks.”

Will laughs, a dry and surprising sound. “Yeah. Yeah it really, really does.”

“I think we can all help each other.” Jemma says and the hopeful lilt in her voice is sincere.

Daisy cuts her eyes at Jemma and Jemma can read her expression perfectly. They’ve had many a mission or briefing to practice the art of silent communication. Daisy has more than a few things on her mind but isn’t about to say any of them in front of Will.

Jemma just gives Daisy’s hand a squeeze. “It’ll be okay.”

Daisy doesn’t look like she believes her.

 

* * *

 

They spend the next several hours talking with Will, getting the pieces of his story and putting them into place. He was sent by NASA as muscle to protect a group of scientists -the men that belong to the packs and skeleton that Jemma and Daisy have already found.

“They all died, one by one,” Will tells them, his voice flat and emotionless. “I was the only one…it’s just been me.

“I haven’t seen anyone else since Taylor died,” Will says. “Just all these buildings…but never a sign of anyone else. I think this place used to be…I mean it used to be impressive, right?” He puts his hand gently against the curve of the water pump that has quickly become Jemma and Daisy’s saving grace. “To build all this…to create a whole civilization.”

“Yes,” Jemma muses, “we’ve thought the same thing. We’ve been wondering what happened to everyone…how they could just…vanish.”

Will’s expression darkens. “Haven’t you felt it? There’s something…evil about this planet. Something wrong.”

Daisy’s eyes narrow slightly. “Yeah, I’ve been getting that vibe.”

“I think that’s what happened,” Will says. “Whatever is here…it killed everyone.”

Jemma looks at him in surprise. “Have you ever…seen anything else?”

Will shudders, glancing toward the curtained window like he expects something to burst inside. “Once. It was…that was enough.”

Jemma glances at Daisy, whose eyes have narrowed once more. “What did it look like?” She asks Will and Jemma can still hear the suspicion in her voice.

Will looks at Daisy, a hint of a smile on his lips. “Like evil. Like death,” he tells her. “I hope that I never have to run into it again.”

Jemma lets her eyes linger on the window as well, listening to the wind blow outside. “We need to get out of here.”

Will only nods. “I couldn’t agree more.”

 

* * *

 

“You don’t trust him.”

Jemma can’t see Daisy in the quiet darkness of the room, but she doesn’t have to. She already knows how Daisy must look, can imagine her expression as easily as Jemma feels like she can imagine her own.

So, Jemma just listens to the sound of Daisy’s breathing, waiting for her to finally say what she’s been wanting to say since Will arrived.

“It’s not…he’s been watching us. Why hasn’t he said anything until now?” Daisy asks, and her words tickle the back of Jemma’s neck.

“He didn’t think we were real.”

Daisy scoffs, moving close enough to bury her nose in Jemma’s hair. “So he says.”

“I think this is what we need,” Jemma tells her. “Think of everything he knows about this planet. I think he can help us get home.”

“If that’s true then how come he’s still here?”

Jemma smirks in the darkness. “Because he didn’t have me.”

“Ha,” Daisy says dryly. “How modest of you, Dr. Simmons.”

Jemma turns around so that she and Daisy are nose to nose. “I’m serious. You have your abilities and I have mine. I think the three of us together can figure out the way home.”

“I just don’t know, Jemma. Something about him seems…off.”

Jemma lifts her eyebrows. “You would probably be off too if you haven’t seen another person in almost fourteen years.”

This is something that Daisy can’t argue with.

“The food is going to run out eventually,” Jemma points out. “And the sun…I miss the sun. We can’t stay here. And we can’t exactly leave him.”

Finally, Daisy shakes her head. “No, we can’t. We can’t leave him.” She blows out a breath. “Fine. I just want to get the hell out of here.”

Jemma kisses her. “I want to be back in our bed.”

Daisy smiles. “Our bed, huh?”

“Well, it seems like we might have already crossed the sharing a room threshold.”

Daisy nods, resting her forehead against Jemma’s. “Soon.”

 

* * *

 

They put their heads to figuring out a way off this godforsaken planet.

“I’ve tried everything,” Will tells them as they attempt to brainstorm. “The portal only opens from the other side.”

Jemma frowns, her brow furrowing. “That can’t be true. I’m sure they would have figured out a way to get it open by now…”

“You’re sure you…have people on the other side trying to rescue you?” Will asks tentatively.

Daisy glares at him. “Of course we do.”

Will holds up his hands defensively. “Sorry. It’s just…no one has ever tried to rescue me. I mean, as far as I can tell.” He rubs a hand against his stubble thoughtfully. “But if you have someone trying to open the portal from the other side, then that’s a start.”

“I wish there was a way to keep an eye on the portal without leaving this place behind. For all we know, Fitz has already managed to open it, but we weren’t there to go through.” Jemma leans back on her heels, thinking about this. “Just waiting there would be pointless.”

Daisy nods. “It’s the same thing we’ve been talking about since we first came through.”

Will looks at them. “It’s not that far from here,” he says. “I mean, assuming that you guys came through the same place I did.”

Daisy’s forehead crinkles. “Not that far? I feel like we walked for days before we found this place.”

Will only shrugs. “This place has a way of making you feel that way.”

Daisy still looks skeptical but Jemma only shrugs. “We _did_ feel like we were walking in circles…”

Will gets to his feet, offering a hand to Jemma. “I can show you.”

Daisy frowns as she looks at Jemma’s hand in Will’s but doesn’t say anything. She also doesn’t accept Will’s offer to help her up.

They follow Will out of their shelter in silence. The wind is calmer than it has been since they burst free from the portal and Jemma can’t help but breathe a sigh of relief, relishing in the feeling of not having sand pelted at her skin. “If only the sun would finally come out.”

“It only rises every eighteen years,” Will tells her as they walk. “It should come up in a few months, though.”

“I’d rather not stick around.”

The journey seems far less difficult than Jemma remembers. Judging by the look on Daisy’s face, Jemma isn’t the only one who feels this way.

Maybe it’s the fact that the wind is calm and still around them. Or that they’ve been here long enough to start accepting the reality of the planet where they’ve landed.

But it seems like they’ve hardly been traveling when they finally crest a hill and Will points down below them. “Isn’t that the spot?”

Jemma looks out across the expanse of flat sand. “Everything looks the same.”

Daisy shakes her head. “This is impossible. This can’t be right.” She looks over her shoulder. “You can see the city from here.”

Will shrugs. “Maybe you guys just took the long way.”

“It’s like everything has gotten smaller.” Jemma frowns, considering. “Have you ever noticed that, Will?”

Another shrug. “I mean…sure. This place…like I said it’s not normal. It gets into your mind. Messes with you.”

“I guess we might as well take a look around,” Daisy says, starting down the hill in the direction that could lead to anything.

The portal. More sand. Jemma thinks it might be impossible to pinpoint exactly where they came through. She pushes aside the voice that tells her that this, all of this, is hopeless.

Will is quick to follow after Daisy, neither of them looking back as they leave Jemma behind. She hesitates for a moment, staring at the landscape around them. The planet no longer seems infinite, endless. It seems constrained, changed somehow.

Maybe Will is right. Maybe the planet and all the days without sun and proper water and food have all conspired to make her own memories seem foggy and distorted. Maybe the journey to find shelter only seemed longer because of the wind and the sand and the pure terror that had been flooding her body, making every step seem impossible.

Below, Daisy and Will are standing around a spot that Will is pointing to and Daisy’s head is bent toward Will, so as not to miss whatever it is that he’s saying. For the first time in days, Daisy’s posture seems more relaxed, at ease. Like she’s let the tension ease out of her and has decided to unshoulder her worries.

Jemma almost envies her.

When she joins them, Daisy looks up at her. “I think this is the place.”

Jemma can only frown. “How can you tell? How…it doesn’t make any sense.”

There’s something in Daisy’s eyes. Conviction, but something more. A shimmering dullness that looks as unfamiliar as the rest of the landscape. “I can just tell. I dunno, I…I feel it.”

Jemma stares at her, almost as though she’s waiting for Daisy to crack a smile and reassure Jemma that she’s only kidding. But she doesn’t. “You feel it?”

Will nods. “This is the place.”

Behind them are the ruins of the city. Around them is nothing but sand. Nothing looks any more promising than anything else.

It seems as logical as anything else…though Jemma has to admit that logic has nothing to do with any of this.

And, as she’s gotten so used to doing, Jemma just pushes aside the nagging voice that’s promising her that something is wrong.

“Okay. So what’s the plan now?”

 

* * *

 

Once again, Jemma awakes with a start. And, once again, when she reaches for Daisy, she finds herself alone.

This time when Jemma sits up, Daisy is nowhere to be seen in the shelter. Her shoes, usually standing sentry by the door beside Jemma’s own, are gone.

They’ve been taking turns keeping watch over the portal from the hill a few yards away from the ruins, but Will normally takes the overnight shift, claiming he’s more comfortable with the odd, endless “night time” hours on the planet.

And Daisy and Jemma often spend their shifts together, keeping an eye on the ground below while daydreaming about all the things they’re going to do when they get back to the base.

Jemma ignores the twinge in her chest, the stab of jealousy, at feeling like she’s been left behind.

Instead, she just pulls on her shoes and goes outside to find Daisy.

Daisy is perched at the crest of the hill that they’ve made their official lookout point, staring out across the unchanging landscape. She doesn’t seem to notice Jemma until Jemma sits down beside her and she smiles, leaning her shoulder against Jemma’s. “What are you doing?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” Jemma replies.

Daisy shrugs. “I couldn’t sleep, so I came to relieve Will.”

“You should have woken me,” Jemma says. “I would have come with you.”

“I didn’t want to,” Daisy says gently. “You looked like you were having a nice dream.”

Jemma sighs. “If I was, it was probably about taking a shower and eating a pizza.”

Daisy grins at her. “At the same time?”

“If I have anything to say about it.”

They sit together, shoulder to shoulder, and Jemma tries to imagine what it would be like to watch the sunrise that appears only every eighteen years. Would it be as satisfying as the ones at home? Would it make her feel like everything was going to be okay, the way mornings have a way of doing?

Or would the sun only serve to illuminate all the problems on this garish planet?

Jemma runs her fingers through Daisy’s tangled hair, twisting the locks around her fingers. Daisy offers her an absent smile. “Maybe I’ll cut my hair when we get back.”

“Do you really think this will work?” Jemma asks quietly. “You think we’ll get back.”

Daisy looks at her. “Where’s your optimistic attitude?”  

“I think I left it at the base.”

“Will thinks this will work,” Daisy tells her. “It’ll work.”

“You and Will seem to be getting along better now.” Jemma doesn’t like the way that her tone sounds slightly petulant, but she can’t shake it loose.

Daisy furrows her brow. “I thought that was what you wanted. Teamwork and all.”

Jemma shakes her head, mentally rolling her eyes at herself. “Yeah, of course. I…” Rather than try to finish her thought, she just shakes her head again, banishing the words from her mind.

Instead, Jemma rests her head on Daisy’s shoulder and closes her eyes. This way, she can almost imagine the feeling of the sun on her cheeks.

 

* * *

 

“Something is happening.”

Will’s sudden appearance startles Jemma and she jumps, the water collected in her palms splashing across her feet.

“What do you mean? Happening where?” Jemma stands up straighter. “Is Daisy-”

Will waves her questions aside. “Yeah, she’s fine. Everything is fine. Something came out of the portal. A flare or something.”

Jemma’s heart thuds against her ribs and her head feels fuzzy, like she’s listening to static. “A flare?”

Will reaches for her impatiently, tugging her forward. “We need to hurry.”

Daisy is already there, staring down at the area they all seem to have decided the portal is located. Though, Jemma figures that she might as well admit that Will has been right all along.

“What happened?” Jemma questions, her head still spinning, heart hammering. She feels like she’s stumbling along blindly, struggling to keep up.

Daisy gives her a fleeting glance. “I think they’re getting the portal open.”

Jemma reaches for Daisy’s hand. “We’re going home. Finally.”

Will nods, grinning. “Finally.”

And then, another flare bursts from the ground, streaking across the sky and exploding in a burst of light. Jemma’s mouth drops open and she looks back toward the earth. “We’re really going home.”

Will leads the way down the hill in the direction of the portal. As they walk, he seems to be covering the distance much quicker than Jemma and Daisy and she feels like no matter how she quickens her pace, they can’t quite keep up.

The wind starts to pick up and Jemma squints as the sand slaps against her skin, driving her backward.

Ahead, the ground starts to shake and churn, the earth splitting open. Jemma can barely see the opening portal through the swirl of sand and the wind continuing to push her backward. Daisy and Will seem just out of reach, blurred in the swirl of sand and the light emanating from the portal.

“Wait. Daisy…”

But when Jemma reaches out to the figure in front of her, it’s not Daisy but Will.

Or, at least, her first instinct is that it’s Will.

But now that Jemma looks at the figure closer, it doesn’t look quite like Will at all.

It’s taller, wider…and Jemma’s hand isn’t resting on an arm at all but on smooth, oily flesh.

Jemma jerks her hand back, stumbling backward. “What-”

The thing that should be Will turns back to face her and Jemma feels fear, deep and primal, take root in her body, freezing her in place. The thing isn’t even human, tall and grotesque, tentacles emerging from what was once a human face.

“What are you?” Jemma whispers, feeling her knees start to tremble as she stares into the thing’s cold, unfeeling eyes. Her body prickles with fear, and the rabbit heart in her chest seems to be thudding impossibly fast.

“Death,” the creature says simply. “Yours. And everyone’s.”

The creature reaches for her but Jemma lurches backward quickly, nearly stumbling over her feet. The sand continues to drive against her, distorting her vision, making everything seem so close and impossibly far away.

She can’t see the portal. She can’t see- “Daisy! Daisy!”

All she can see is the creature, making its steady way toward the fissure in the earth. Jemma grits her teeth, grabbing for the back of the tattered clothes that used to belong to Will. She catches the creature by surprise, pulling him backward, away from the portal.

The creature whirls back to face her, throwing Jemma to the ground. “I’ve been waiting for this for thousands of years,” he growls. “You will not stop me.”

Jemma scrambles to her feet, making a grab for the creature again. This time, the creature doesn’t even have to touch her before Jemma finds herself sprawling on the ground again. And the weight on top of her is familiar and unmoving. “Daisy?”

Daisy pins her to the ground, ignoring her and looking over at the creature. The creature just nods its approval. “Don’t let her interfere.”

“I won’t.”

“Daisy! Daisy, what’s wrong with you!” Jemma tries to free her wrists, tries to reach up for Daisy. “What’s happening!”

“Nothing is wrong,” Daisy tells her and that glassy, unfocused look is back in her eyes.

Actually, Jemma doesn’t think it’s ever left. She just thinks she stopped looking for it.

“We have to let him go through,” Daisy tells Jemma. “It’s what he’s been waiting for.”

Jemma shakes her head, trying to wrestle her way out from beneath Daisy. “Listen to yourself! Think! We can’t let that thing get through the portal.”

Jemma starts to sit up, but Daisy knocks her back down and she sees stars when her head knocks against the ground. “I won’t let you stop him.”

Jemma draws her knees up, driving them into Daisy’s stomach as hard as she can. “Sorry. You’ll thank me later,” Jemma says through gritted teeth, scrambling to her feet.

Daisy is sprawled on the ground, struggling to regain her breath. She doesn’t protest when Jemma grabs her arms, yanking her roughly to her feet. “We have to hurry,” Jemma says, glancing around to get her bearings. “We can’t let that thing get through the portal first.”

She thinks about Fitz and Coulson and the others on the other side of the portal, struggling to keep it open so she and Daisy can come back through.

If that thing comes through instead…they’ll be unprepared. They’ll be…

“We have to hurry.”

Daisy doesn’t exactly make it easy, remaining dead weight in Jemma’s arms as Jemma attempts to drag her toward the portal. She can’t see the creature through the torrent of sand and wind, but she doesn’t know if that’s necessarily a good thing.

The portal is there, just a few yards ahead. The sand is stinging Jemma’s eyes, making them water, and trying to drag Daisy forward is making her muscles burn, her body protesting.

But still.

Still.

“We’re so close.”

Just a few more feet.

Just-

Daisy is suddenly yanked from her arms and Jemma stumbles to the ground, bracing her fall, her palms stinging from the sand. When she looks up, the creature is there, his clawed hands holding tightly to Daisy. Daisy doesn’t look frightened or even worried. She looks placidly content, like someone in the midst of a very pleasant dream.

Jemma looks over her shoulder. The portal is still open. She’s there between the creature and the portal and it seems like a precarious place to be.

Especially since the creature has Daisy.

And the way that the creature smiles, grotesque and slimy, lets Jemma know that he realizes this too. “If you want her, you’ll have to let me through too.”

Jemma shakes her head, slowly letting her hand inch toward the waistband of her pants. “I don’t think so.” Her eyes flick toward Daisy. “Daisy, I know you’re still in there. Listen to me, please. Fight back.”

Daisy opens her mouth to respond but the creature beats her to it. “She’s not. She’s mine now.” One of the tentacles protruding from its head strokes the side of Daisy’s face. “Would you condemn her to life here, on this planet, with only me?”

For a moment, Jemma falters. She lets the creature’s words sink in, lets herself imagine going through the portal without Daisy.

It’s not an option.

“Let her go,” Jemma says through clenched teeth.

The creature laughs. “Then let me-”

Jemma lunges forward, burying the pocket knife into the creature’s chest. The blade is dull, but it punctures the flesh anyway, causing the creature to grunt in surprise and stumble back. It releases Daisy, which is exactly what Jemma had hoped would happen.

Jemma grabs Daisy, pulling her backward and away from the creature. “We have to hurry. The portal…”

Already, Jemma can see it’s closing.

But still, Daisy fights against her, trying to twist out of Jemma’s grasp, dragging her heels. She only has eyes for the creature across from them.

The creature yanks the knife free, looking at it in disgust before tossing the blade aside. It extends a hand toward Daisy. “Come.”

Daisy tries to wrestle against Jemma, driving an elbow into Jemma’s stomach. “Let me go!”

Jemma gasps, her eyes blurring with tears. “Never.”

Daisy pushes against her, an animalistic sound emerging from her gritted teeth as she turns back to aim her fist at Jemma’s head.

And then, suddenly, they’re through the portal.

The world seems to whoosh out of being, the sound and light sucked away as quickly as flipping a switch.

The air is driven from Jemma’s lungs as her back connects with something solid and everything around her is suddenly impossibly bright and loud, crashing against her brain with impossible force.

Jemma forces herself to blink, to focus, to grab ahold of her thoughts long enough to remember who she is. And where.

She looks up and sees Fitz coming toward her and Jemma’s eyes go wide. Everything seems to be moving in slow motion and her eyes settle on the portal, still open. “Close it,” she whispers. Or maybe she shouts. It’s impossible to tell. “Close it now!”

Fitz only looks confused and panic starts to claw up Jemma’s throat, threatening to choke her. It’s impossible to breathe, to think.

Everything feels impossible.

“Close it. Please.”

Jemma slumps backward, exhausted.

The ground is cool and solid against her back. No more sand.

And there’s Daisy’s weight against her, her arms still tightly linked around Daisy’s chest.

“No.” Jemma feels the word as it vibrates through Daisy’s body more than she hears it. Daisy struggles against her suddenly, fighting with renewed strength. “No!”

Daisy pulls herself free just as the portal closes and Daisy drops to her knees, slapping her palms against the smooth floor. “No, no, no.”

Jemma pushes herself up onto her elbows, chest twisting as she watches Daisy. She can feel the eyes of the team on them, all of them watching Daisy with bewildered looks on their face. Like they’ve forgotten who Jemma and Daisy are, like they don’t recognize them.

Jemma is too exhausted to bother trying to explain.

There’s too much.

Just too much of everything.

It’s easier to lean back against the cool floor and close her eyes again.

 

* * *

 

“It’s so bright,” Jemma whispers, covering her eyes with the back of her hand. “Please.”

There’s the sound of shuffling, footsteps on a concrete floor. And then a snap and the world is plunged into darkness.

Jemma feels safe enough to open her eyes again. She can barely make out Fitz’s form, standing still by the doorway to the med bay. “Better?”

“Stop yelling.” Jemma sits up slowly, staring down at the tangle of wires sprouting from her hands. “Everything is so loud.”

Fitz gives her a pitying look, shaking his head. But he just says, “Sorry” and his voice is barely a whisper.

Jemma looks around, taking in her surroundings, to reassure herself. The base. They made it back.

“Where’s Daisy?”

“She’s here,” Fitz assures her. “She’s in the containment cell.”

Jemma rubs her eyes with the heels of her hand, blinking away the tears. “I don’t know what happened to her. All of the sudden…” Though, it wasn’t _really_ all of the sudden.

It was Will.

Or…the thing pretending to be Will.

Fitz lays a hand gently on her shoulder. “We’re running tests.”

“I want to see her.”

“You need to rest,” Fitz says. “Sleep. We’re taking care of her. Let us take care of you, too.”

Jemma wants to protest. She wants to slide out of bed and rush to Daisy’s side. But her body doesn’t seem to be cooperating and everything feels so heavy.

It’s easier to close her eyes and shut everything else out again.

 

* * *

 

Daisy is still in the containment pod when Jemma wakes up again and this time no one stops her when she gets out of bed and insists on seeing her.

“She’s been asking about you, too,” Bobbi says as she and Jemma walk down the darkened hallway toward the lower levels of the base.

Jemma wonders if everyone has gotten the word by now: turn off the lights, speak in a whisper. Treat them like glass.

“I think seeing you will help.” Bobbi presses her identification badge to the keypad on the wall and the door to the pod whooshes open.

And there’s Daisy, laying on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. She sits up quickly and when she sees Jemma there, her shoulders slump, her face colored with relief. “How are you? Are you okay? Jemma…”

“Am _I_ okay?” Jemma looks at her, surprised. “What are you talking about?”

Daisy purses her lips, looking away. “I kinda have a memory of punching you in the face.”

“You tried,” Jemma tells her. “But you missed.”

Daisy still won’t look at her. “That doesn’t make me feel better.”

“It wasn’t you.” Jemma sits on the edge of the bed beside Daisy, trying not to take it personally when Daisy moves her leg away, expanding the distance between them. “It was…whatever that was…”

“He was Inhuman.” Daisy closes her eyes. Her hands, folded in her lap, are shaking. “He got into my head…I couldn’t hear anything else…I can still feel him.”

Jemma reaches to rest her hand against Daisy’s head and Daisy flinches. “That thing is gone. Stuck on that other planet.”

“I tried to-”

Jemma lifts her hand to Daisy’s cheek, lifting Daisy’s head so that their eyes can meet. “Stop. It’s over now. You’ll feel better soon.”

Daisy shakes her head. “I don’t know…he’s still…” She presses a hand to her chest, swallowing.

“We’re safe now. We’re home.”

Daisy smiles but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “I guess this isn’t as good as eating pizza in the shower.”

“That will come later,” Jemma assures her, pressing her lips to Daisy’s forehead. “One step at a time.”

Daisy slips her arms around Jemma, pulling her closer. Jemma feels the breath whoosh out of her, relief spreading through her body. If Daisy is touching her, hugging her, wanting to be close…then everything really will be okay.

Daisy will forgive her for what happened on the planet, even if Daisy doesn’t realize that she needs to do so.

And they’ll have plenty of time to talk about it later.

Plenty of time for pizza and showers and down comforters and sunrise after sunrise.

Right now, Jemma just wants to hide her face against Daisy’s chest and breathe her in. She wants to hold tight to her, to let everything else in this, and every world, fall away.

And so, that’s exactly what Jemma does.


End file.
